The collapse of large swathes of the global financial system has left a void
into which global organisations such as the International Monetary Fund will
have to step, Gordon Brown said.

As he unveiled the outline for the forthcoming Group of 20 meeting in London in April, the Prime Minister said it was essential that international institutions are beefed up in response to the financial crisis. The need to create a global financial regulation system will be one of the main topics on the agenda for the meeting, he said.

"We have a global financial system, but until now no global co-ordination or supervision, only national supervisors," he said, speaking on the fringes of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

"We need to reform and strengthen international institutions, giving them power and resources to invest at a global level," he said. The G20 meeting is being touted as one of the most important international summits in recent years, bringing together the world's biggest economies to discuss responses to the financial crisis. It will also mark the first official visit to the UK by President Barack Obama.

Mr Brown, who spoke alongside UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, said: "We have to ensure that all major changes are agreed for our financial system as a matter of urgency over the next few weeks at the G20 summit in April."

The meeting will also tackle the issue of how governments can pump extra cash into their economies through fiscal measures without sparking a protectionist backlash. Mr Brown warned of a growing risk of "financial mercantilism", whereby banks refuse to lend to foreign companies, thus intensifying the crisis.

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"If we do nothing, this will lead to a new form of protectionism, a retreat of globalisation and a reduction of trade and cross-border activity which will be followed quickly by the old trade protectionism of the past," Brown said.

"This is a time not just for individual, national measures to deal with the global financial crisis. This is the time... for the world to come together as one."

Although he said the main priority would be "on the economic recovery, jobs and growth", the summit would also tackle issues including climate change and global poverty.

"We will not solve the problem of climate change without development in Africa," he said. "We have got to act on climate change and we have got to act on poverty at the same time."